Dec. 27, 2012
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The new, retro Atlanta Braves batting practice cap / UniWatch

by Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports

by Chris Chase, USA TODAY Sports

When sports franchises go retro with uniform redesigns, it usually conjures idyllic versions of the past. The Atlanta Braves new batting practice caps are a surprising turn in the other direction.

Atlanta's new batting practice cap features the team's old "screaming savage" logo -- a Mohawked Native American with a feather in his head engaged in a tribal yell. The logo was part of the team's uniform from 1967 to 1989. The team got rid of mascot Chief Noc-A-Homa (wait for it ...) two years earlier.

People are in a justifiable uproar at the return to the Mohawked caricature, as if they expected a more nuanced take on race relations from a franchise whose fans still do the tomahawk chop.

The return to the Native American logo is curious and unsettling. Franchises with Native American imagery have slowly retreated away from caricature over the years, even if they still have the team names and logos that are impossibly out of date. A return to a discarded logo is unexpected, to say the least.

If MLB was forced to abandon the design, it wouldn't be a surprise. The new cap received nearly-universal pans across the Internet.

Who knows, maybe the decision could have far-reaching effects. Could the public outcry possibly hasten reforms for other teams with Native American imagery?

The best thing the Redskins, Braves, Indians and other offensively-named teams have gone for them is convention. For centuries, people have been defending outmoded customs with the "that's the way it's always been" excuse. Getting teams to change their names or logo is difficult if there's no catalyst.

For years, the team names are easy to ignore. When people watch a baseball game and hear "Braves" or a football game and hear "Redskins," they think of Hank Aaron or John Riggins, not Geronimo or Sitting Bull. It's harder to reconcile the offensiveness when you see a Native American mascot on a hat or helmet. It's harder still when a team embraces a new version of the past.

One day, there's going to be a slow news cycle, the press will attach itself to the cause and the resulting public conversation will force a change to these things. In our too-PC culture, it's amazing that names and logos which are actually offensive haven't been changed already.